£1.25bn allocated for integrated improvements

11 January 2007

Local authorities in England will benefit from £1.25bn to deliver integrated transport improvements in 2007, under the first local transport settlement to take into account the overall performance of the first five-year plans.
The latest settlement includes £683M for highways capital maintenance – just a fraction above last year’s pot – and £571M for smaller transport improvement schemes.
Integrated transport allocations totalling £1.769M have been announced for the period 2008/09 to 2010/11, depending on the outcome of the Comprehensive Spending Review.
A total of 13 authorities received a maximum 25% top-up for ‘excellent’ grades for both their first local transport plans and their LTP2 submissions – 12.5% rewarded for each.
The highest-scoring authorities are: Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Derby (joint plan), Derbyshire, North Nottinghamshire, Greater Nottingham (joint plan), Halton, Merseyside, Buckinghamshire, Reading, Cornwall, Shropshire and North Yorkshire. For their first five-year plans, authorities were scored on three main areas: road safety, public transport and sustainability. They were also asked to report on two further areas from a choice of the following seven: encouraging cycling; encouraging walking; parking; encouraging the use of travel plans by employers; reducing car use and improving safety on the school run; principal road maintenance and bridge strengthening; and disability issues and social inclusion.
A report of the achievements of the first round of LTPs show bus patronage has increased 116% in Rutland and 56% in York since 2000/01, rural bus accessibility has risen 43% in Hertfordshire since 2001/02, and bus satisfaction in Kent and Wiltshire has increased by about 25% in both counties. In addition, two-thirds of authorities have reported greater levels of cycling.
The biggest reductions in killed and serious injuries (KSIs) were recorded in Reading, Blackpool, Plymouth, Telford & Wrekin and Slough.
At the other end of the spectrum, no authorities’ first LTPs were considered ‘weak’, while Thurrock’s LTP2 was alone in being branded ‘weak’. LTP2s were assessed on nine topic areas: context; analysis of local transport problems and opportunities; maximising value from resources; involvement; performance management; congestion; air quality; and road safety.

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£1.25bn allocated for integrated improvements

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